Sunday, February 8, 2009

Café du Monde - New Orleans

For some, 1039 Decatur Street is just an address, but to me, it’s the home of Café Du Monde. Opened in 1862 in the French Quarter, there are few things more synonymous with New Orleans than this sugar & chicory laden patio.

The recipe really couldn’t be simpler.Take a fried rectangle of dough, cover it in powdered sugar and voila!

That’s a 6 piece order of beignets, and a coronary nightmare, but I can think of few sweeter deaths than death by beignets.

I know what you must be thinking, surely you can’t gorge on just fried dough and powdered sugar.You’d be right.

My favorite accompaniment is a cup of café au lait, made with chicory coffee, to me, it screams French quarter.

I happened to walk behind Café du Monde this time, and I was delighted to see they had a window to the kitchen.This is just part of the process.

The dough is rolled out and cut by this die, and the squares are immediately thrown into the massive fryers

That’s a lot of btu’s under that fryer.I was terrified when one of the cooks tried to lift the tray of beignets and fryer handle came off.The windows were splattered with boiling oil. I imagine that his partner in the kitchen was none too happy to be doused with hot oil.

Sure there are many imitators to Café du Monde, even here in Jackson, there’s a pitiful attempt by jamming beignetz, but nothing will ever top the atmosphere, the years of history and the beautiful plates of dough that are Café du Monde beignets.